The torrential rains triggered by Cyclone Michaung on December 3-4 in Chennai and its neighbouring districts exposed yet again the limits of urban planning. The southern and northern areas of Chennai experienced severe flooding; the only exceptions were the central parts. The neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, and Tiruvallur were equally affected.
This spell of rains was heavier than the rains of 2015, but certain features in the city seem constant. For instance, little changed in Velachery, a much sought-after locality in recent years, or in Ambattur Industrial Estate, one of the old industrial estates of Tamil Nadu. There was public anger in areas where relief work, restoration of services including electricity supply and Internet, and the provision of essentials such as sanitary napkins left a lot to be desired.
The perceptible difference between the 2015 floods and the 2023 rains is that this time, there was no dramatic event apart from the cyclone itself. Eight years ago, the release of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir, one of the water sources for Chennai, into Adyar in the south was widely cited as the main cause of the floods. The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report of 2017 on the 2015 Chennai floods pointed out that 29,000 cusecs of water were continuously discharged for 21 hours from the reservoir. This, coupled with surplus water from upstream tanks and catchment areas, caused flood water to flow into the Adyar river.
